With the continuous development of the Internet technologies, different varieties of instant messaging software emerge in a large amount, and people communicate with each other using the instant messaging software, which brings great convenience to production and lives.
However, as the number of users using the instant messaging software increases, each user may communicate with multiple different users through an instant messaging client, and locally store user information of these multiple different users. The user information includes an instant messaging account (if the instant messaging software is Tencent QQ, the user information corresponds to a QQ number of a user; or if the instant messaging software is Aliwangwang, the user information corresponds to an Aliwangwang account of the user).
However, among multiple different users communicating with a user A, the user divides user information of the multiple users who communicate therewith into groups according to relationships between the user and communication objects. Generally, two types of groups are included, namely, a “friend” type and a “stranger” type. For example, user information corresponding to a user who is known in real life is set as the “friend” type, user information corresponding to a user who has communicated therewith through the Internet is set as the “friend” type, and user information corresponding to a user who is added automatically through the Internet is set as the “stranger” type. As can be seen, user information of the “friend” type is implemented through manual operations of the user. As such, the user can conveniently communicate with other users using an instant messaging client.
With the development of e-commerce business, the number of users who open online stores in the Internet has increased. A user who opens an online store also communicates with a client using instant messaging software. However, a user who opens an online store is not able to determine a relationship with a client with whom the user communicates in time, leading to a rapid increase in the amount of user information of clients belonging to the “stranger” type associated with the user who opens the online store. Furthermore, as user information that is used by people for registration in the Internet is set up casually, user information of corresponding clients cannot be classified by using the user information.
The rapid increase in the amount of user information of clients belonging to the “stranger” type not only increases the difficulty of managing user information in instant messaging software for a user who opens an online store, but also forces the user who opens the online store to promulgate commodity information thereof to every potential client in a potential client group (that is, user information of clients of the “stranger” type), which not only wastes system resources but also leads to a low efficiency of promulgating the commodity information, thus failing to satisfy the needs of the user who opens the online store to promulgate the information.